From The Mind of Merc - The Cummings Conspiracy

Sometimes I find my mind wandering over various eclectic topics and occasionally I am inspired to write some of them down. Today I was thinking about the effect that Dominic Cummings still appears to have on UK politics.

What I mean by this is that, although he is longer a member of parliament it is still painfully evident that they continue to dance to whatever tune he cares to play.

Tbh, I really wouldn’t surprised to see him become PM in the future. To be clear, this is not something I want or would relish – it just seems to me that a man who holds as much sway in and over the UK government as he does and is capable of using that to his own ends must surely only have one destination in mind.

To explain what I mean about his clear and continuing influence, I present these 3 examples.

Example 1 – The Durham Debacle
He flagrantly and unapologetically broke the lockdown rules by driving to Durham with his family. What repercussions did he suffer for his lawbreaking? Absolutely none. Clear proof of the power he held as it Boris wouldn’t dare evict his loyal and experienced advisor.

Example 2 – Gone But For How Long?
Cummings’s enforced resignation coincided with a change in leadership in the USA. The new POTUS brought about a change in Boris and his strategies (particularly COVID) – a heavy suggestion both what Cummings’s influence had been and that it had (for now) been removed. 

Example 3 – Hancock’s H-exit
Last month Cummings emerged from the woodwork to take aim at Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, who was forced to resign after footage of an affair (which had to have been going on before this) subsequently surfaced – the government is still subject to Cummings’s machinations.

Clearly, Cummings is not finished messing with politics and, ultimately, I believe the main question is who will he take aim at next? And how long before the Tories to decide he’d be a good replacement for Boris? Remember: we do not need to elect him – he only needs his own party to choose him to be their leader. And when there’s little to no effective opposition within his own or from other parties…

From The Mind of Merc - A Change For The Better?

Sometimes I find my mind wandering over various eclectic topics and occasionally I am inspired to write some of them down. Today I was thinking about the effect of the recent US election on UK politics.

Has anyone else noticed the change in Boris Johnson’s approach to (in effect) his job since his best buddy Donald Trump was ousted from the Presidency following November's vote?

Prior to this he seemed to be following the example of the sexist, racist bigot the US were unfortunate enough to have to call their Commander-in-chief; evidently believing that if the POTUS could get away with God knows what and still stay in power then so could he. Then along comes the US election which Trump undeniably (despite what he’d like to think) and humiliatingly loses and suddenly the truth hits home and Johnson is left buddy-less, example-less and the only and worst remaining demonstrable failure on the political stage – especially when it comes to COVID. Surely now is the time he needs to pull his finger out and I think there are clear signs that there has been a definite change in his approach.

For example, let’s start with COVID:

Johnson has gone from ‘Herd Immunity’ and ‘It’s not that bad’ to ‘We must act now’ and ‘We will be following data, not dates’. While this could be said to be the approach he should have had a year ago, I think the main thing to take out of this is that he does appear to be actually trying to do his job – we can only hope and pray this is the start of a long-term policy.

Also, the departure of Dominic Cummings from his team hopefully shows that just as he is no longer committed to playing follow my leader with Trump and his policies, he is now less inclined to blindly and foolishly follow the advice of people he likes, has previously trusted or possibly have leverage over him. True he is still not practising accountability for himself or his cohorts – as demonstrated by the fact that Cummings faced no repercussions for any of his transgressions and likewise Matt Hancock has now evaded censure for his unlawful actions regarding COVID contracts – but it is a definite step in the right direction.

I’m not saying he’s perfect – there's still a long way to go before he even gets close to that and there are still a lot of dismissive policies and borderline comical U-Turns to sort out, get past or prevent from happening ever again.

Overall, I believe judgement should be reserved on this newfound ‘dedication’ until we have sufficient time to judge the success and also longevity of his apparent epiphany but it is hopefully I sign that we are at last truly on the road to recovery. We can only hope that the UK finally gets the leader we so desperately need and that Johnson apparently desperately believes he is.